Presence

• Awe

  Level 1

  You get noticed, even in the busiest room. Your beauty and charisma draw the attention of others like moths to a flame. Even those who do not agree with your cause or your purposes will stop and listen, willing for a moment to give you the benefit of the doubt.

  To activate Awe, spend 1 Blood point and expend a standard action. For the remainder of the scene, you seem larger than life, more impressive than usual, and everyone within conversational distance will pay attention to you and will feel a strong desire to be near you. Characters affected by Awe are not compelled to like, trust, or stop attacking you, but they must pay attention to you. A target affected by Awe is automatically considered to be focused on you, as per the Gaze and Focus rule.

  Characters may ignore all uses of Awe for one hour, even if they come from multiple individuals, by spending a point of Willpower.

• Dread Gaze

  Level 2

  A vampire’s Beast is a terrifying thing, feral and predatory. Using Dread Gaze allows the Beast to surface, focusing its rage on another individual. A vampire’s bloodthirsty nature is apparent in her features as the Beast hisses or roars in dark, primal wrath. Those targeted by this fearsome power often quail before it, fleeing in terror from the fury of the Beast.

  Expend a standard action as your character bares her fangs and hisses or roars at her target, and then make an opposed challenge against your target. If you are successful, she is overcome by fear. She will not willingly come within five steps of you for the next five minutes, and actively seeks to avoid your presence and your anger.

  A character who has been affected by your Dread Gaze will not attack you unless she has no other option. If forced into a confined place with you, the victim may fight you in order to escape, but will move away and stop fighting at the earliest opportunity.

• Entrancement

  Level 3

  A gentle smile can sway the hardest heart. You are the highlight of the gathering, a star in a cloudy sky, the sole recipient of attention. Few others can match your beauty and poise, and those who are lucky enough to gain your attention will do anything to keep it.

  To activate Entrancement, spend 1 Blood, expend a standard action and make an opposed challenge against your target. If successful, you bend your target’s emotions and capture her heart. She becomes immediately receptive to you, rationalizing any disdain or negative feelings she had for you before you used this power. While the target is not your slave and will not blindly obey your commands, the subject admires you greatly and is willing to work toward your goals, within reason.

  Both during the effects and after this power fades, the subject will rationalize the effect of Entrancement. Those who already felt positively toward you will simply remember that you were particularly alluring; those who moderately disliked you will begrudgingly blame the brief change of heart on your incredible persuasive skills. Only an individual who actively reviled you and wished you harm will clearly see that her actions were manipulated. Others, watching the Entranced individual, may see more clearly that she is under the sway of your emotional control — but it will be difficult to convince the Entranced individual that such is true.

  Entranced characters cannot bring themselves to harm you, physically or politically, and will generally be as nice to you as reasonably possible. Entrancement is not mind control, and characters you’ve Entranced are not obligated to follow your instructions to the letter. They will generally try to make you happy, and they will take your side in arguments or conflicts, so long as they are not put in danger by doing so. An Entranced character will not blood bind herself to you or risk her life to defend you, but she will lend assistance as long as the situation isn’t dangerous.

  If you attack someone you’ve Entranced, this power’s effect ends immediately.

• Summon

  Level 4

  Your powers of persuasion are so strong that you can mystically compel others to come when you beckon, even if they are miles away. The mere memory of your beauty and inspiring personality haunts them, and they feel the soft, insistent call of your spirit summoning them to your side.

  To Summon another individual, spend 1 point of Blood and expend a standard action. Make an opposed challenge against a familiar target.

  Once you have begun a Summons, you cannot leave the area where you initiated the power, or the Summons will immediately end. If you succeed, the target of your Summons automatically realizes she has been affected by the use of a power, as well as the identity of the individual performing the Summons, and the location where she is to meet with you. If your target doesn’t trust you, she can spend a brief period of time, up to 10 minutes, taking precautions before answering your Summons.

  A summoned target will come as quickly and directly as possible, but she also retains her survival instincts. The target will not walk off a cliff or enter a situation that she realizes may be an ambush.

  If it is not possible for a character to present herself to you physically without entering a dangerous situation, the target must come as close as possible and contact you in some other way, such as via a phone call, forcing a human to deliver a note, or sending an animal messenger. If the target is not aware of an overt risk to her safety, she will respond to your Summon in person, even if you have sinister plans.

  Summoned mortals will continue following your call across any distance, no matter how much time it takes to reach your side, so long as you remain on the premises where you initiated the Summon. They will eventually present themselves to you, even if they have to travel for days. Supernatural creatures travel as far as possible until they reach you or until the next sunrise, whichever comes first.

• Majesty

  Level 5

  You have mastered the ability to channel your vampiric Beast’s emotions, focusing its rage into a dark, regal bearing that seems almost palpable. The force of your personality causes meeker hearts to quail, and fearful individuals to bow or grovel before you as you demand their respect. Hearts break and even the most stalwart tremble as you pass, overwhelmed by the authority and sovereignty of your countenance. You take on the aspect and mien of ancient rulers, expressed however is appropriate — be it through intimidation and command, worshipful subservience, sexual magnetism, or purity and grace.

  Spend 1 Blood and expend a standard action to activate Majesty. For the next hour, you appear to be the apotheosis of your character’s best nature – astonishingly beautiful, terrifyingly evil, regal beyond reproach, or otherwise – as refl ects your character’s personality. The feeling of a character’s Majesty can vary, depending upon the user’s personality and current mood.

  Majesty manifests as a domineering emotional presence, amplifying your character’s nature. While this power is active, others cannot show you disrespect, and while they may disagree with you, they must do so with utmost courtesy.

  Anyone who wishes to attack or be rude to your character must make an opposed challenge, using her Social attribute + Willpower versus your Social attribute + Leadership. If the aggressor fails this challenge, she cannot make another attempt against your Majesty for at least 10 minutes. She becomes trapped in the effects of your Majesty and will continue to treat you with respect and courtesy even if she leaves your locale. After 10 minutes have passed, the aggressor may again attempt to break your Majesty. This effect also applies to powers that don’t directly target the Majesty user, but instead target the area encompassing the Majesty user. If a character wishes to engulf a room in fire and one of the characters in the radius has Majesty active, the aggressor must test against that Majesty to do so.

  If you attack an individual affected by your Majesty, or if you use a power on such an individual, your Majesty immediately breaks for that person. She is rendered immune to your Majesty for the next hour and can treat you as she would normally, even attacking you, as she sees fit. This breaking of Majesty only affects the specific individual; others in the area who are affected by your Majesty are not freed simply by witnessing your aggression toward their friend.

  During a mass combat scene, if you use the assist defender tactic to force someone to attack you instead of their intended victim, your Majesty automatically breaks for that attacker, as you have acted aggressively towards her. If you attack a character who is aided by the assist defender tactic, your Majesty is broken for both the new target and the original target, unless you choose to forgo your attack when the other players declare their use of the assist defender tactic.

• Paralyzing Glance

  Level 6

  Although your stare cannot kill, it can certainly shake a foe to her core. You can summon the unrelenting predatory nature of your Beast, focusing it into a single fleeting look. Those targeted by this stare become prey before you, too terrified even to run away.

  To activate Paralyzing Glance, you must spend 2 Blood, expend your standard action to stare intently at your target, and make an opposed challenge against your opponent, using the Presence test pool. If you succeed, your target becomes utterly frozen and abjectly terrified. She is unable to move, speak, flee, or take any other actions.

  Your target remains paralyzed so long as you continue to expend a simple action each round to maintain your focus, although you do not need to continue looking at your target. This paralysis continues until you leave the target’s presence, until she is the target of an attack, or until she takes damage. If the paralysis breaks for any reason, the victim suffers the effects of Dread Gaze, and must flee your presence immediately. For the rest of the evening, the target will avoid you, acting as if you’d achieved an exceptional success with Dread Gaze.

• Love

  Level 6

  Vampiric blood holds many powers, from the command of mental facilities to the might of pure strength or speed. But many elders argue that the ability to sway emotions through the chains of the blood bond are the most effective and insidious power of all. Certainly, those who can evoke the obsession of blood-bound love without actually forcing another to drink their blood have an advantage in vampiric culture — a terrible, frightening advantage. Those who fall under the effects of such a creature’s power will move heaven and earth, betray friend and ally, and even sacrifi ce themselves, all on behalf of their beloved.

  Love is a dangerous thing, as it completely alters its subject’s emotions and personality toward the enthralling vampire. Such a victim is suddenly affected by a stage three blood bond for the next hour.

  Once Love wears off, the subject attempts to rationalize the actions she took while under the sway of this discipline. However, unlike Entrancement, a user of this power can persuade her target to do dangerous and atypical things. If, while affected by Love, the target engaged in particularly abnormal activities or acted against her ethics or beliefs, she will almost certainly realize her emotions were forcibly manipulated.

  To activate Love, spend 3 Blood, expend your standard action, and make an opposed Social challenge against your opponent, using the Presence test pool. If you succeed, your target is suddenly affected by a stage three blood bond to ward you for the next hour.

  If you use this power on the same target twice in one evening, reduce the duration of the second application of Love in half, so that it lasts for 30 minutes. This penalty is cumulative. The second time you use Love on one target, the duration is a half hour; the third time you use Love on that target in the same evening, the duration becomes 15 minutes; and so forth.

• Capricious Visage

  Level 6

  The world's a stage, and you are its amaranthine star, capable of bringing teeming throngs to their knees with little more than a look and a word. This ability allows you to command a crowd, cowing them into submission or kindling their adoration as all eyes focus on your overwhelming countenance.

  When attempting to use the Presence powers of Dread Gaze or Entrancement, you may choose to spend 1 additional point of Blood to activate Capricious Visage and target a number of individuals within your line of sight for each dot you possess of the Leadership skill. When using this elder power against multiple targets, you must make a separate opposed challenge using the Presence test pool against each defender. Should you expend a point of Willpower to retest any of these opposed challenges, you also gain that retest for the remainder of the opposed challenges without spending further Willpower. If you spend the Willpower to retest after some challenges have been resolved, you cannot go back to previous challenges you have lost and apply that Willpower retest retroactively.

• Comrades in Arms

  Level 6

  When victory seems uncertain, the presence of a confident figure stills wavering hearts and refocuses efforts toward victory. Indeed, from Joan of Arc to Alexander the Great to Oda Nobunaga, some of the most powerful and inspirational leaders have led their battles from the front lines, driving them to incredible success despite overwhelming odds. Through bold action and deft skill, you have the power to inspire others to persist in the face of adversity.

  Spend one point of Blood and your simple action as you rally a group to your cause designating a number of targets up to the number of dots you have in the Leadership skill as your comrades. You may only activate this power during combat. Whenever you achieve an exceptional success, your designated comrades become Inspired by your exceptional feat and are motivated to redouble their efforts. Likewise, whenever one of your designated comrades scores an exceptional success, you become Inspired. While a character is Inspired, the next time she spends a point of Willpower for a retest, she regains a point of Willpower, and is no longer Inspired. Being Inspired lasts only the duration of the current combat; if combat ends, you will no longer be Inspired.

  In order to activate this benefit, the exceptional success must be earned through normal means; powers or effects that convert a success into an exceptional success such as Bull’s Eye, Strength of the Titans, or the merit Breaking Point do not activate this power. You may be subject to multiple applications of this power, able to grant and receive benefits to and from multiple people. However, you cannot carry more than a single application of Inspired at any one time.

• Cooperation

  Level 7

  While the vampire sects are nominally based on cooperation, it is often painfully difficult to get allies to actually work together. Rivalries, ambition, and intrigue stand in the way of a willingness to play nice with each other. Luminary elders can change that by compelling those that might deviate from the elder’s goals through a contest of wills.

  When activating Majesty, you may spend 3 additional points of Blood to enact Cooperation. As a result, those affected by your Majesty must cooperate with your intended efforts to the best of their ability. This could mean stopping combat, building a bridge, leaving a location, etc. Until a character breaks your Majesty or spends a point of Willpower she must go along with your wishes. For each turn a character that has not broken your Majesty wants to take an action that does not directly conform to your wishes, she must spend a point of Willpower. Once spent, she may proceed with her desired action; however, a character cannot attack you or be rude to you without first breaking your Majesty. A character cannot be made to spend more than a single point of Willpower per turn in this way. When a character breaks your Majesty the effects of Cooperation end against that character. Characters with the Appearance focus for Majesty do not ignore Cooperation unless they also possess Cooperation.

• Scourge of Arikel

  Level 7

  The pomp and grandeur that surrounds royalty serves to signal not only their wealth but also their power, enabling them to call for silence or obedience with only a few sharp words. Those who gaze upon such resplendence understand the terrible danger that comes with disfavor and know that their place is to obey. With this power, your ire becomes a threat, as even a darting glare or an angry look carries crushing emotional weight. While this power is commonly credited to the Toreador Antediluvian, members of other clans with Presence are known to attribute it to their own founder.

  Spend 1 point of blood and your simple action as an overwhelming and baleful aura surrounds you. Any who look upon you will intuitively understand that crossing you is likely to carry harmful consequences. For the next 10 minutes, anyone who loses to you in a Social challenge who is within your line of sight suffers 3 points of aggravated damage if you choose. The other party suffers this damage regardless of whether you are the aggressor or defender. If the other party relents to you, they do not suffer this damage. This damage does not constitute an attack or damage for the purpose of powers where such actions could cause them to end, such as Majesty or Eyes of the Cobra.

  If you are engaging in a mass challenge, each defender who loses to you suffers the damage individually. If you are the aggressor in a challenge where the outcome would cause the defender damage, such as Horrid Reality, calculate the damage from this power as separate for the purpose of damage reduction effects such as Fortitude. Note that the category of a challenge is tied to the defender’s test pool; you may use this power only if you are defending with your Social attribute or if the defender is defending with her Social attribute.